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Ni ROMEO ALLAN BUTUYAN II
PARA kay Rizal 2nd District Rep. Emigdio ‘Dino’ Tanjuatco III, malaking bentahe sa mga mamamayan kung makakatipid ang gobyerno sa pagdaraos ng 2025 midterm election, lalo pa’t maraming aspeto ng serbisyong isinusulong ng Pangulo ang kapos pa rin sa pondo.
Mungkahi ni Tanjuatco na tumatayong vice chairman ng House Special Committee on Southern Tagalog Development, gamitin na lang ang nasa 97,000 vote counting machines na binili ng pamahalaan – sa halip na ipatupad ang “hybrid voting” at “counting system” na kinontrata ng Commision on Elections (Comelec) para sa nalalapit na halalan.
“Instead of spending so much money on an untested AES, which greatly risks failing the Filipino electorate, why not reuse the VCMs in the Comelec’s possession? These machines are still covered by warranty until next year,” hirit ng Rizal solon.
“Reusing these VCMs is a very viable option given the government’s present challenges in providing critical funds to support social amelioration, food security and universal health care,” dagdag ng kongresista.
Sinabi ni Tanjuatco na ang mga nasabing VCM ay siyang pinaka praktikal na solusyon upang matuldukan ang malaking pagdududa sa Comelec-Miru deal.
“The VCMs had been verified to be in working condition, as after retrieval, each VCM was inspected individually and restored to perfect condition, as validated by the Comelec itself,” aniya.
“For the 2025 elections, the voting machine will be used as an optical scanner, allowing the Comelec to utilize its existing machines. The VCM inventory complies with 95% of the requirements for the optical scanner functionality, as specified in the AES’ TOR,” paliwanag ng kongresista.
“The machines have been tested and they perform well. Only 1.8% of these VCMs experienced issues in the past elections, which is better than expected. For comparison, deploying 100,000 MacBooks can result in up to 10% experiencing issues; for laptops with Microsoft software, it can be even higher — up to 20%,” dugtong ng mambabatas.
Bunsod nito, si Tanjuatco ay sumama sa hanay ng dumaraming bilang ng legislators na nanawagan sa Comelec na gamitin na lamang ang binili nitong VCM para sa 2025 polls. “The billions of pesos in savings can bridge the budgetary gaps in essential services that the government is mandated to provide,” pahayag pa ng Kinatawan ng ikalawang distrito ng Rizal.
Una nang kinuwestyon ng ilang miyembro ng Kamara ang P18-billion contract sa pagitan ng Comelec at Miru Systems Co. Ltd. dahil hindi umano nito nasunod ang terms of reference (TOR) para sa automated election system (AES).
“I was present during the first demo of Miru’s machines in the Comelec, where I witnessed the deficiencies first hand,” bulalas ni Tanjuatco.
Duda rin si Tanjuatco sa integridad ng vote-counting capabilities ng Miru prototype machine na aniya’y bumabasa sa balota kesehodang lukot, punit o may ibang marka.
